1,800 entries categorized "Europe / Eurasia"

May 18, 2016

BBC News reports the Zika virus could spread to Europe this summer, although the likelihood of an outbreak is low to moderate, the World Health Organization has said. Areas most at risk are those where Aedes mosquitoes may spread the virus, like the Black Sea coast of Russia and Georgia and the island of Madeira. Countries with a moderate risk include France, Spain, Italy and Greece, while the risk in the UK is low. The UN agency is not issuing any new travel advice at this time.

The Washington Post reports despite pledging to withdraw the majority of its forces from Syria in March, the Russian military remains firmly entrenched throughout the country and is even continuing to expand in some areas, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State, told reporters Tuesday that Russian capabilities are “almost identical” to what they were before President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that his country’s forces would soon be returning home.

The New York Times reports Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Tuesday that if President Bashar al-Assad of Syria continues to block access of humanitarian aid to besieged cities and towns, they were prepared to help the World Food Program airdrop food and emergency supplies. The very fact that they had to threaten the airdrops — which are expensive and often inaccurate — amounted to an admission of how little progress has been made in achieving either the lasting cease-fire or the regular humanitarian relief that European and Arab nations, along with Iran, laid out as the first steps toward a broader peace agreement.

May 16, 2016

The New York Times reports a Swedish court convicted a 61-year-old man on Monday for taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and sentenced him to life in prison. The case was noteworthy for being part of a transnational effort to hold people accountable for crimes against humanity, no matter where those crimes occurred. The Stockholm District Court found that the man, Claver Berinkindi, a Rwandan who obtained Swedish citizenship in 2012, had participated in five massacres between April 18 and May 31, 1994. In the hills of Nyamure, he rallied people to participate in the killing of thousands of civilians. He was also involved in the deaths of hundreds of people who had sought refuge in a municipal building in the town of Muyira and in an adjacent adult education center. Trapped in the compound, hundreds of people were massacred.

May 12, 2016

Reuters reports British Typhoon fighter jets have intercepted three Russian military transport aircraft approaching the Baltic States, the defense ministry said on Thursday. The British fighters, scrambled from the Amari air base in Estonia, intercepted the Russian aircraft, which were not transmitting a recognized identification code and were unresponsive, the ministry said. "We were able to instantly respond to this act of Russian aggression - demonstration of our commitment to NATO’s collective defense," Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in a statement.

Al Jazeera reports Syrian and Russian air strikes have targeted rebel-held areas in Aleppo province, killing and injuring several people, as rebels captured a village in Homs province, monitoring group says. The regime warplanes aided by Russian fighters targeted several neighbourhoods in Aleppo city, sources told Al Jazeera on Thursday. No information on casualties was available, but sources said several people were killed and injured. Warplanes targeted al-Zahraa and al-Maysar shortly after the truce ended at midnight on Wednesday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.

BBC News reports the US has activated a land-based missile defense station in Romania, which will form part of a larger and controversial European shield. Senior US and NATO officials attended the ceremony in Deveselu, southern Romania. The US says the Aegis system is a shield to protect NATO countries from short and medium-range missiles, particularly from the Middle East. But Russia sees it as a security threat - a claim denied by NATO. Relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated since Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Reuters reports it is up to Turkey to fulfill the 72 criteria that the European Union has set out if it wants the bloc to grant it visa-free travel, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday. Earlier, Ankara's minister for EU affairs said Turkey believed it had fulfilled all the criteria, adding that it was unacceptable if the deal was postponed unfairly. But Steinmeier, speaking at a conference on Europe in the German foreign ministry, said Turkey must change anti-terror statutes which could give rise to the pursuit of journalists.

May 10, 2016

BBC News reports a top UN official has voiced alarm about violence against civilians by Turkish government forces in Kurdish-majority south-eastern Turkey. The UN says it has reports that more than 100 people were burned to death while sheltering in basements in Cizre. UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged Turkey to grant the UN unimpeded access to the affected areas. As the report came out, Kurdish rebels were blamed for a bombing that left three people dead and 45 injured. The car bomb attack targeted a police bus in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, Turkish media reported, quoting local officials.

The Washington Post reports Iran’s defense minister on Tuesday announced the delivery of a powerful S-300 air-defense missile system from Russia as part of an arms deal that was revived after the Islamic republic reached a framework nuclear agreement with world powers last year. Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan said at least one S-300 system, often compared to the U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missile system, has been delivered to the Khatam al-Anbiya base, Iranian state news agencies reported. Russian officials have said they plan to deliver at least four of the missile defense systems by the end of the year.

May 09, 2016

Al Jazeera reports the Turkish government has made the unusual move of confirming that its special forces entered Syria on Saturday, on what it called a "reconnaissance mission." Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep near the Turkish-Syrian border, said it was highly unusual for the Turkish government to announce a special forces operation conducted outside the country's borders. "Perhaps they were trying to give a message by announcing something so secretive," she said. She said the operation was probably an attempt to stop the almost daily attacks on Kilis, a Turkish border province which has been hit by rockets from areas in Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

May 04, 2016

BBC News reports the European Commission has given conditional backing for Turkish people to get visa-free travel inside Europe's passport-free Schengen area. It says Turkey has made good progress on key conditions, but work remains to be done "as a matter of urgency." The change could take effect from July, but first it requires approval by the European Parliament and member states. The deal was offered in return for Turkey taking back migrants who crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece. The EU fears that without it, Turkey will not control migration.

The Washington Post reports U.S. and Russian military officials will sit in the same room 24 hours a day and jointly pore over maps and intelligence to monitor cease-fire violations in Syria under a new system they hope will save a fast-collapsing truce, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday. Under the new arrangement, which Kerry said could be finalized by Wednesday, lines will be drawn in and around Aleppo, scene of the heaviest recent fighting, to prevent new incursions or attacks from any party in the Syrian civil war.

Reuters reports NATO said on Wednesday it had agreed to non-member Israel setting up representation at its Brussels headquarters, a tentative sign of rapprochement between the Jewish state and NATO member Turkey. Israel and Turkey have stepped up efforts to patch up a relationship badly damaged following an Israeli raid in 2010 on a Turkish boat, the Mavi Marmara, which had been trying to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip.

May 03, 2016

Reuters reports the European Union's executive will propose a reform of the bloc's asylum rules on Wednesday, EU sources said, that reflects caution in the face of deep divisions among governments about how to handle the migration crisis. The European Commission last month floated scrapping a rule in the so-called Dublin system that gives responsibility for handling asylum claims to the first EU state a person enters -- a rule that has placed heavy burdens on Greece and Italy. However, two sources said, it would now issue a legislative proposal retaining the "first country" principle while including a central scheme to spread claimants around Europe to give the frontline states the chance to relocate asylum seekers to other EU countries if arrivals on their borders are too high.

BBC News reports Russia's foreign minister says a unilateral truce declared by the Syrian military could be extended to the city of Aleppo "in the next few hours." Sergei Lavrov said Russia was working with the UN and US to include Aleppo in the "regime of calm" that has covered Damascus and Latakia since Saturday. But Lavrov warned that rebels would have to leave areas where allied jihadist militants were being targeted. More than 250 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past 10 days.

The Washington Post reports NATO is considering placing thousands of additional troops in Poland and the Baltic states, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said Monday, adding that any new forces in the region would be rotational and part of an effort to deter future Russian aggression. The Pentagon chief would not specify what countries would contribute troops but said the possible deployment is one of several options being weighed by the alliance. Any final decision to bolster troop levels in Europe will probably be made at a NATO summit in Warsaw this summer, he said.

May 02, 2016

The Washington Post reports the United States and Russia are studying possible ways to separate rival forces in Syria, delineating potential “safe zones” for opposition fighters amid renewed violence that has threatened to fully collapse a two-month-old cease-fire attempt. Secretary of State John F. Kerry — in Geneva on Monday for emergency meetings on the crisis — said that the next 24 to 48 hours will be crucial in determining whether the plan will work. “I don’t want to make any promises that can’t be kept,” he said.

April 28, 2016

BBC News reports Russia has launched the first rocket from its new Vostochny cosmodrome, following a 24-hour delay that drew the ire of President Vladimir Putin. The launch of the Soyuz was watched by Putin, who had flown 3,500 miles to the country's Far East for the event. The Vostochny cosmodrome was built to reduce dependency on the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. The unmanned rocket is carrying three satellites. The initial attempt at launch was called off less than two minutes before lift-off on Wednesday, following a technical fault. Putin stressed that the delay was related to the rocket itself - not the cosmodrome, located in the Amur region near the Russian-Chinese border.

The Washington Post reports Salah Abdeslam, the 26-year-old French national of Moroccan origin suspected of involvement in November's terrorist attacks in Paris, was transferred to French custody by Belgian authorities Wednesday. According to French officials, he'll be placed in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility as investigative judges determine his eventual charges. In an interview with the French daily Liberation, Sven Mary, Abdeslam's Belgian attorney, heaped opprobrium on his departing client, whom Mary described as having "the intelligence of an empty ashtray — an abysmal emptiness." Mary referred to Abdeslam in French as a "petit con" — a phrase that could be translated as "little jerk" or a--hole — who was "more a follower than a leader" among "Molenbeek’s little delinquents."

Reuters reports the Turkish military returned fire on Islamic State positions in northern Syria on Thursday, killing 11 members of the militant group, military sources said. The military returned fire after its artillery near the border town of Karkamis was hit by mortars, the sources said. Meanwhile, brawls between lawmakers from Turkey's ruling AK Party and the pro-Kurdish opposition have delayed efforts to pass legislation on a migration deal with the European Union, but the country's EU minister said a deadline next week would still be met.

The New York Times reports a government airstrike on a hospital in the insurgent-held section of the Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least 27 people, including three children and six staff members, health workers and witnesses said Thursday. On the other side of the divided city, in the government-held section, insurgent mortar attacks killed at least eight people, most of them civilians, said officials at a hospital where casualties were streaming in at midday. Over the past week, the Syrian government and its Russian allies have sharply stepped up airstrikes on rebel-held areas in Aleppo, and rebels have increased shelling of government-held areas.

April 27, 2016

BBC News reports Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has appeared before a French judge hours after his extradition from Belgium. His lawyer said the 26-year-old French national had been placed under formal investigation for murder and attempted murder of a terrorist nature. Salah Abdeslam is thought to have played a key role in planning the Paris attacks and transporting the attackers. He was arrested in an March 18th raid in Brussels after four months on the run. The co-ordinated attacks carried out by so-called Islamic State in Paris on November 13th claimed 130 lives and left dozens more severely wounded.

The Washington Post reports barely two months after the United States and Russia joined together to forge a partial cease-fire in Syria, cooperation between them, including on a long-term political solution to that country’s civil war, is rapidly eroding. Russia this week accused the administration of “appeasing” its regional partners by ignoring the presence of terrorists among opposition forces it backs in the fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Noting President Obama’s decision to send an additional 250 Special Operations forces to the separate war against the Islamic State in Syria, despite pledges of no U.S. “boots on the ground,” a foreign ministry spokesman asked sarcastically whether they were deploying barefoot.

The New York Times reports with President Vladimir V. Putin looking on, Russia’s space agency postponed the inaugural launch of a rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East on Wednesday, citing an unspecified, last-minute technical glitch. The unmanned Soyuz rocket carrying three satellites was due to blast off in the morning from the new launch site, which has been plagued by scandals over embezzlement, unpaid wages and construction delays. Putin had flown to the space center to watch the liftoff and planned to stay an extra day — until at least Thursday morning — when technicians will try again to launch the rocket, the Russian news media reported. But there were indications there might be further delays.

April 26, 2016

The New York Times reports the Islamic State is operating clandestine terrorist cells in Britain, Germany and Italy, similar to the groups that carried out the attacks in Paris and Brussels, the top-ranking American intelligence official said on Monday. When asked if the Islamic State was engaging in secret activities in those nations, the official, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said: “Yes, they do. That is a concern, obviously, of ours and our European allies.” He then added, “We continue to see evidence of plotting on the part of ISIL in the countries you named.” ISIL is another name for the Islamic State.

BBC News reports Swedish intelligence service Sapo is investigating a possible terror threat to the capital, Stockholm, local media say. Iraqi authorities had informed Sweden that seven or eight militants from the so-called Islamic State group had traveled to Sweden, newspapers reported. A Sapo spokesman would not confirm the nature of the information received. But he told Swedish Radio the information could not be "dismissed." The same spokesman, Simon Bynert, told another news outlet that Sapo was also sharing information with the national police service "to see if they in turn can implement measures that fall under their remit."

April 25, 2016

The Wall Street Journal reports the Kremlin is creating a new internal security force that answers directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ahead of parliamentary elections. The Russian government says the new force, called the Russian Guard, will be headed by Viktor Zolotov, who served as Putin’s personal bodyguard for 13 years. Putin directed the creation of the force this month through an executive order now under review by the lower house of parliament. Putin said the security force is intended to tighten control over the arms trade in the country and streamline counterterrorism efforts.

April 22, 2016

The New York Times reports Najim Laachraoui, one of the two suicide bombers who attacked Brussels Airport last month, has been identified by former Islamic State hostages as one of their captors in Syria, a lawyer for several of the hostages said on Friday. Marie-Laure Ingouf, a lawyer for Nicolas Hénin and Pierre Torres, two of the four French journalists who were first detained in 2013 by the Islamic State in Syria, said that the former hostages had identified one of their captors as Mr. Laachraoui, who used the name Abu Idris at the time. In the latest issue of the Islamic State’s online magazine Dabiq, Laachraoui was identified by the nom de guerre Abu Idris al-Baljiki.

April 21, 2016

Reuters reports the Russian military said on Thursday it had completed the demining of the ancient part of the Syrian city of Palmyra, recaptured by Syrian and Russian forces in late March from militants. "Comrade commander-in-chief! As of today, the task of demining the architectural and historical part of Palmyra has been fully completed," Russian engineer troops commander Yuri Stavitski told President Vladimir Putin via video link from Palmyra. He said Russian troops would continue demining Palmyra's residential area.

April 20, 2016

The New York Times reports the French government will seek a two-month extension of the state of emergency it declared after the attacks in and around Paris that left 130 people dead in November, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Wednesday. The move, which is expected to get the required parliamentary approval, comes as France prepares for the European Championship soccer tournament and the Tour de France this summer. The two high-profile, well-attended events will pose a serious security challenge as the government tries to guarantee safety amid the increasing threat posed by Islamist extremists.

The Washington Post reports Russia and Syrian forces have shifted troops and artillery back toward northern Syria in recent weeks, the latest sign that a fraying cease-fire in the country could collapse completely, U.S. defense officials said Tuesday. The troop movements, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, come after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad retook areas around the city of Palmyra from the Islamic State late last month. The Syrian troops, backed by Iranian ground troops and Russian airstrikes, achieved a strategic and political victory over the terrorist group, an indication that Assad and his allies were shifting military resources to fight the Islamic State, rather than Syrian opposition groups, after the cessation of hostilities announced in February.

April 14, 2016

BBC News reports Russian president Vladimir Putin has said the Syrian army is able to carry out "serious offensive operations" despite a drawdown of Russian forces. He said Syrian government forces had achieved some recent important victories, including in Palmyra. Russia began its campaign of air strikes in Syria last September in support of the government. Speaking in an annual televised phone-in, he also said he backed a plan for armed monitors in east Ukraine. He said Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko had recently proposed stepping up the presence of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the separation line between government and separatist forces, and arming them to enforce a ceasefire.

Reuters reports Washington has raised its concerns with Moscow over Russian jets that earlier this week passed close to a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea, the White House said on Thursday. "The Unites States has raised our concerns with the Russians," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily press briefing. "I can tell you that that communication has occurred, and we'll seek to resolve our differences through well-established military channels."

April 13, 2016

The Associated Press reports Spanish police have arrested a Frenchman suspected of supplying weapons to Paris attacker Amedy Coulibaly for use in the deadly January 2015 attacks in the French capital, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. A ministry statement said Antoine Denive, 27, from the northern French town of Sainte Catherine was arrested Tuesday with two other men in the southern Spanish beach town of Rincon de la Victoria on a European arrest warrant. A Serbian man and a Montenegrin man also allegedly tied to arms trafficking were also arrested.

Reuters reports two Russian warplanes with no visible weaponry flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. official said, describing it as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory. The repeated flights by the Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes, which also flew near the ship a day earlier, were so close they created wake in the water, with 11 passes, the official said. A Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter also made seven passes around the USS Donald Cook, taking pictures. The nearest Russian territory was about 70 nautical miles away in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Lithuania and Poland.

April 12, 2016

BBC News reports two more men have been charged over the March 22 Brussels attacks, after they were linked to a safe house said to have been used by one of the bombers. Smail F and Ibrahim F, reported in local media to be brothers, face charges including terrorist murder. Three suicide bombers killed 32 people at Brussels international airport and Maelbeek metro station. On Tuesday, three more suspects in the attacks in Paris in November were arrested in Brussels, officials said.

April 11, 2016

The Washington Post reports the escape plans of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks, were derailed largely because of his decision to involve two women whose impulses when faced with the choice of trying to help him or stop him were immediately at odds. His cousin helped Abaaoud elude authorities for days and died with him in the Saint-Denis apartment. The other woman, who had served as a surrogate mother to Aitboulahcen for several years, secretly called and met with police, providing information that probably helped authorities stave off another wave of attacks. The relationship between the two women in many ways reflects broader tensions in Muslim communities across Europe over interpretations of their religion, degrees of loyalty to their countries and the insidious appeal of the Islamic State.

Reuters reports the Turkish army on Monday shelled sites in northern Syria in response to cross-border rocket fire that hit a Turkish town, a government official said. Rockets from Syria landed inside Turkey's southeastern border town of Kilis, injuring at least four people, security sources said. It was not immediately clear whether the rockets had come from Syrian territory controlled by Islamic State.

April 08, 2016

BBC News reports the key remaining suspect in November's Paris terror attacks, Mohamed Abrini, has been arrested, media and police sources say. Belgian media say Abrini is also likely to be the "man in the hat" seen on CCTV before the blasts in the Brussels airport departure hall on 22 March. Prosecutors have confirmed that several arrests have been made in connection with the Brussels attacks. The attacks on the airport and a metro station left 32 dead. The gun and bomb attacks in Paris on 13 November killed 130 people. Although the Belgian federal prosecutor confirmed that "there have been several arrests in the course of the day in connection with the attacks on the airport and metro", they would give no further details.

April 07, 2016

The Associated Press reports President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied having any links to offshore accounts and described the Panama Papers document leaks scandal as part of a U.S.-led plot to weaken Russia. Putin also defended a cellist friend named as the alleged owner of an offshore company, describing him as a philanthropist who spent his own funds to buy rare musical instruments for Russian state collections. Speaking at a media forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said Western media pushed the claims of his involvement in offshore businesses even though his name didn't feature in any of the documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm.

April 06, 2016

BBC News reports the European Commission has come up with alternatives for a "more humane and efficient" way of handling asylum in response to the migrant crisis. The current EU system is widely thought to have failed because of the influx of a million people through Greece. Among the options is a plan to scrap a rule for refugees to claim asylum in the country they arrive in. The so-called Dublin regulation proved unworkable when Germany opened the door to Syrian refugees last August. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans argued the current system had to change, saying: "We need a sustainable system for the future, based on common rules, a fairer sharing of responsibility, and safe legal channels for those who need protection to get it in the EU."

Reuters reports one of the Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 32 people in Brussels on March 22 had worked as a cleaner for a short period in the European Parliament six years earlier, a spokesman for the EU assembly said on Thursday. In 2009 and 2010, "one of the perpetrators of the Brussels terrorist attacks worked for a period of one month for a cleaning company which was contracted by the European Parliament at the time," spokesman Jaume Duch Guillot said in a statement which did not name the individual. At the time of his temporary work in the parliament, he had no criminal record, the parliament's spokesman said.

April 05, 2016

The Washington Post reports the State Department on Tuesday designated Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the November attacks in Paris, a global terrorist, imposing sanctions on him and prohibiting Americans from dealing with him. Abdeslam was called an operative for the Islamic State. The French citizen, who was born in Belgium, has been charged with terrorist murder for his role in the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, among them an American college student, and injured more than 350 others. Abdeslam was captured in mid-March in Brussels and is awaiting extradition from Belgium to France.

April 04, 2016

The New York Times reports a “foreign fighter surge team” of experts from the F.B.I., State Department and Department of Homeland Security met with their Belgian counterparts a month before the Brussels terrorist attacks to try to correct gaps in Belgium’s widely criticized ability to track terrorist plots, American officials said. The half-dozen experts focused on long-term structural fixes to the Belgians’ failure to share intelligence effectively and to tighten porous borders, but not on providing information about suspected Islamic State operatives. The recommendations, even if accepted, would not have prevented the deadly attacks at the Brussels Airport and in the city’s subway last month, the officials said.

April 01, 2016

Reuters reports French, Germans and Britons make up the highest number of foreign fighters in the Syrian rebel ranks from European countries, but Belgium is the largest contributor in proportion to its population, a Dutch study shows. Europeans fighting alongside Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq have been high on the agenda of European security concerns for several years. Returned volunteers have been involved in attacks in Paris and Brussels over the past 18 months, including last month's bomb blasts in the Belgian capital. The study, prepared by the Hague-based International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, said European Union countries should not be complacent about their citizens leaving to fight in the Middle East, even those that have seen little such movement.

BBC News reports Turkey has illegally forced thousands of refugees to return to Syria, a report by Amnesty International says. The group says about 100 Syrians have been sent back to their war-torn country every day since mid-January in breach of international law. Amnesty says its report exposes the flaws in a recent deal between the EU and Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of refugees arriving in Greece. Turkey has denied sending back any refugees against their will. The Amnesty report comes just days before Turkey is expected to receive the first migrants returned from Greece under the deal with the EU. On Friday the UN called for safeguards before any migrants were returned.

March 31, 2016

Reuters reports the United States has sent FBI teams to help Belgian authorities investigate the March 22 attacks that killed 35 people, including several Americans, and U.S. and Belgian officials will discuss the cooperation this week, the White House said on Thursday. "Belgium has accepted our assistance. We have FBI teams on the ground assisting with the investigation. We are sharing information and intelligence with Belgium as it relates to terrorist threats," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told a news briefing. Rhodes said the Belgian interior minister was expected to discuss the security cooperation with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington this week.

The New York Times reports the suicide attacks at Brussels Airport have led to intensified scrutiny of hiring, security and the lack of standardized procedures at airports across Europe, amid questions about whether the bombings last week could have been prevented. The head of the largest police union in Belgium warned on Thursday of a serious security problem at Brussels Airport, citing systematic security flaws, bureaucratic incompetence and the employment of baggage handlers with criminal records. His remarks came as the airport police wrote an open letter, cited in several Belgian newspapers, expressing deep concern about the level of security at the airport, echoing worries about procedures, staffing and the potential for infiltration by terrorists at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport after the deadly attacks in and near Paris in November.

The Associated Press reports in a rare courtroom victory for a Serb defendant, a U.N. war crimes tribunal on Thursday acquitted ultranationalist politician Vojislav Seselj of atrocities and pronounced him a free man. The decision inflamed simmering tensions in the Balkans, sparking joy in Serbia and horror and deep anger in Bosnia and Croatia. Prosecutors had charged Seselj, 61, with crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence for his support of Serb paramilitaries during the region's bitter, bloody wars in the early 1990s.